Fifteen crude oil degrading bacteria were isolated from oil contaminated sites in the Persian Gulf at
Khorramshahr provenance. These bacteria were screened with two important factors such as growth rate
on crude oil and hydrocarbon biodegradation, and then three strains were selected from 15 isolated
strains for further study. One strain (PG-Z) that show the best crude oil biodegradation was selected
between all isolates. Nucleotides sequencing of the gene encoding for 16S rRNA show that strain PG-Z
belong to Corynebacterium variabile genus. This strain was efficient in degrading of crude oil. This strain
was capable to degraded 82% of crude-oil after one week incubation in ONR7a medium. The PG-Z strain
had high emulsification activity and biosurfactant production between all isolates. GC–MS analysis shows
that C. variabile strain PG-Z can degrade different alkanes in crude oil.
